May Update 2018

Dear praying friends and family,

Greetings! We trust you are doing well.

It’s proven to be a busier schedule for us these next few weeks, so we want to update you on what took place recently before things get piled up…

We had a wonderful time visiting Japan! Our hosts, Soeuth’s niece and her Japanese husband, went extra miles and beyond in their efforts to host us. Having them as our own personal tour guides and interpreters, we were able to visit some exotic places within a few hour drive to each place from Tokyo. We had opportunities to taste some yummy, yet interesting food and to experience some of the local and cultural stuff…

Enjoying Japanese food with our hosts

Visiting tea farm

Beautiful flowers displayed in the park 

Enjoying shopping in Japan

Shortly after returning to Cambodia, we joined the Poipet CAMA staff retreat in Sihanoukville at the beach. It was a very long road trip (14 hour drive each way), but it was worth every effort after seeing all the excitements written on their faces. Some of the staff members had never seen the ocean before!

CAMA Staff Retreat

2 Timothy says, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” These past few weeks as we returned and resumed our village classes, we learned a number of heartaches that some church families had encountered, and some of these other hard issues/ challenges are still taking place…

1. On April 30 at Andoung Chan village, Mr. Kong’s daughter suffered a few deep cuts and bruises on her body as a result of a severe domestic violence from the hands of her unbelieving husband!  She was immediately taken to a local clinic and was treated there. Sadly, her two young children (aged 4 and 2) witnessed the entire event. The husband left the house and got away without any charge…

2. A few days later during an evening family worship time while Mr. Kong was leading a devotion, an angry drunken man, Kong’s unbelieving’s brother-in-law, came by carrying a big machete pointing to and threatening Kong saying, “I will cut off your head, if you continue to poison my family with this foreign God of yours."  Seeing the severity of the situation, the man’s wife (Kong’s younger sister) and her two small children reluctantly left the worship place at her husband’s demands.

3. On May 1, also at Andoung Chan village, Mr. Raa’s two cows were hit and killed by a truck with a military license plate! By Cambodian law, if the cows cross the roads resulting traffic accident at a certain time of the day, the cows’ owner, if identified at the time of an accident, is responsible to pay for the cost of the vehicle damage. If the owner is not identified, however, the driver has the right to take the dead animals… Understanding the situation and realizing that he has no means to pay for the damage, Mr. Raa quietly hid behind a tree waiting while the driver searched for the cows’ owner.  After some time of questioning local people and not finding the cows’ owner, the angry driver left with one dead cow. Sometime later, Mr. Raa came out from hiding to collect the other dead animal...
Cambodian farmers, not trusting modern banks, invest their saving into buying and raising live stocks such us cows, buffalos, and or pigs. So, Mr. Raa and his family had lost a total of $900.00 worth of saving…

4. Two days after the cows’ incident, during a late evening walk home, Mr. Raa’s 13-year old adopted son, Sokhey, was bitten by a poisonous snake, a viper!  Raa was attending a worship service at Srae Nouy when this happened.  Hearing the news from his wife, Raa and a few other men left the service and rushed home to take Sokhey to the clinics. Since it was late in the night, all local clinics closed!  Panicked, friends and family lifted Sokhey up in prayers throughout the night. Next morning, Sokhey awoke healthy and alive! When asked what took place, Sokhey shared experience that immediately after he felt a sharp pain on his left foot, Sokhey looked down and saw a snake crawling. Next, he took his walking stick and killed the snake.  Then, he knelt down and prayed to God on the same spot asking the Lord Jesus to help. Finally, he walked home carrying a dead snake by one hand and a walking stick in another hand with his foot bleeding from the snake bite. When he reached home, he shared the sad news with his mom… After hearing Sokhey’s story and seeing a dead snake as proof, everyone was amazed. One neighbor surprisingly said, “No one had survived from such a deadly snake before," a few other nodded in agreement. On May 4th when we resumed our weekly class, Mr. Raa came to class with Sokhey sitting next to him, alive and healthy. Everyone praises to Jesus!

Mr. Raa (middle) and his son (right)

This past week, as persistently requested by the church families, Syna taught two baking classes at Srae Kandal and at Andoung Chan villages having nine female participants. The ladies give praises to Jesus for opportunities to learn to bake and to earn small incomes from selling their baked goods.

Baking class at Amdoung Chan village

Events and dates to pray for: 

1. This week May 6-12, Syna is in Phnom Penh attending Field Leadership Team (FLT) meeting and Intergenerational Leadership conference. The conference leads by the visiting team from Citylight church in Omaha, Nebraska. Syna will participate in the English-Khmer translation. Pray for safe traveling for all the participants and visiting team.

2. May 13-16, the northwest regional KEC youth will participate in an annual motorbike mission trips visiting four village Alliance churches in Anlong Veng areas. Pray for safe traveling and opportunities to witness Christ to those who are seeking.

3. This is the final and exam week for our son and his wife, Justin and Katie, at Crown College. Both will graduate from the same nursing program on May 12. Sadly, we will not be there in person, but will try to view this special event through a streamline. The young couple had worked hard and endured four long hard years of studies, and this week is their last! Pray that they will finish well…

4. Please pray for leadership seminars in Tek Choe village (May 18), at Poipet (May 19) and at Srae Nouy village (May 24-25).

5. May 26:  We are so excited that Justin and Katie are coming to Cambodia!  They both will be with us for a day then will fly out to visit Penang, Malaysia. On June 1, all three children (Justin & Katie and Jonathan) will come home!  We are looking forward to this reunion.

6. Due to conflicts in schedule, the National KEC youth committees had moved their quarterly meeting date to June 2 in Phnom Penh instead.

Please share with us what God is doing in your lives. Thank you for partnering with us in the Cambodian ministries through your faithful prayers and generous financial support to the Great Commission Fund. We are very grateful.

Blessings,
Soeuth & Syna